CHAPTER XX
ROY VISITS HAMMOND
Roy's first impulse was to summon assistance, to rouse the camp; hisnext, to avoid detection. For the beach was empty of boats; every one ofthe five, the four steel rowboats and Chub's canoe, had been lifted intothe water and manned by the marauders, and by the time the fellowsreached the scene they would be far out into the river. All this Roysensed in far shorter time than it has taken to tell it. Scarcely amoment had passed since the moonlight had revealed the stooping figurein front of him. Roy still stood poised for that forward step. The format his feet resolved itself into a boy with a woolen sweater and a clothcap. He had laid a piece of paper on the beach and was piling pebblesupon it. Had he glanced up quickly he could not have failed to see Roy,even though the latter stood in partial shadow. Roy held his breath andwaited. In the boats the dark forms of the invaders were motionless,startled doubtless by the sudden advent of the moonlight. Then the boyat Roy's feet straightened himself up with a little laugh, and, withoutglancing back, crept down the beach toward the boats. And as suddenly asit had come the moon went, and once more the darkness envelopedeverything. Roy took a deep breath and, with pulses leaping, creptsilently after the other. The moon had played into his hands.
He kept to the right, heading toward the last of the boats as heremembered its location. The Hammond boy had gone straight down thebeach and Roy had no desire to overtake him. In a moment his feet werein the water, splashing softly. Vague forms came and went in thedarkness and his hands groped toward them. It is probable, however, thathe would have waded straight into the middle of the stream had not a lowvoice hailed him.
"Here you are, Jim, get in here!"
Roy turned toward the voice, stumbled over a sunken stone and collidedwith the side of a rowboat.
"Don't make so much noise, you plunger!" said the voice. "Give me yourhand."
Roy gave it and was promptly hauled over the side of the boat. Someonepulled him down upon a seat.
"All right!" whispered the voice.
"All right, fellows!" called someone in the next boat softly. And therecame the sound of creaking rowlocks.
"Got your oar?" whispered the fellow who shared Roy's seat. Roy feltaround and found it and began to row.
"Look out, you fellows!" called a voice from the darkness beside them,and they ceased rowing while another boat crossed ahead of them.
"More to the right," commanded a boy behind Roy and Roy pulled hard onhis oar. Presently a little breeze came into their faces and Roy guessedthat they were rounding the lower end of the island. Very silently theywent. After a little Roy turned his head and saw a light here and thereon the farther shore. He judged that they were by this time about halfway across. The fellows about him began to converse in whispers,gradually forgetting caution as they left the island farther and fartherbehind.
"Won't they be a surprised lot of chumps in the morning!" asked someonewith a laugh.
"They sure will," answered another Hammondite. "They'll be 'very ill'for a long while."
"I never thought we'd do it," said the boy who was working an oar nextto Roy. "I don't see yet why they didn't hear us."
"They weren't expecting us," said another. "I tell you that was a foxyidea of Jim's, to find out where they kept the boats from the othershore, now wasn't it?"
"Who went over, Jim?" asked Roy's companion. Roy's heart sank, butluckily someone behind answered for him.
"He went over himself, he and Smith. Rowed over a mile up-river, leftthe boat, came down across the fields. They watched for an hour and sawthe Ferry Hill fellows come back from school and haul the boats out. Oh,it was an all-right scheme!"
Roy looked at the sky, hoping mightily that the moon wouldn't come outuntil they had reached the other shore. There was still a lighterpatch up there, but the moon seemed pretty well extinguished for thetime being. If only they wouldn't insist on his talking!
"Roy held his breath and waited."]
"Do we have to give the boats back right away, Jim?" asked a voice fromthe bow. Roy hesitated, hoping that as before someone would answer forhim. But no one did. So he plucked up his courage.
"Guess so," he replied, rather huskily.
"Say, you've got a peach of a cold, haven't you?" asked his neighbor."Did you get wet?"
"Sopping," growled Roy.
"Too bad. You come up to my room when we get back and I'll give you adose of medicine. I've got some dandy stuff! Nasty's no name for it, butit'll do you good."
"Thanks," muttered Roy.
Meanwhile the others were discussing the yielding of the prizes of war.
"They'll probably be around in the morning for them," said one boy. "Ivote we all go down to the landing and receive them."
"Sure; we always do," said another.
"Much you know about it," said a third. "You weren't here two years ago,and we didn't get them last year."
"Well, I guess I've heard about it, haven't I?" was the indignantresponse.
"Easy at the oars, fellows," a voice in the bow cautioned. "We're almostin."
"Where the deuce are we?" asked another voice.
"Here's the landing over here!" The information came from some distancedown stream and Roy and the other rower headed that way. Then their bowbumped into one of the other boats, and presently, after several momentsof confused rowing and backing, they were alongside the float. Roydropped his oar and sprang out.
"Say, someone strike a light!" suggested a voice. "I'll see if I canfind the boat-house lantern."
An exclamation of pain and a crash told the rest that he had gone insearch of it; and at the same moment Roy's companion shoved the boatthey were in up on shore and rushed toward the platform, leaving Royalone with the boat, while the attention of the others was centered uponthe effort to get a light.
"I've got a match," called a boy, and Roy dove wildly into the darknessjust as a tiny point of light flared up. Where he was going he didn'tknow; but luckily the branches of a tree whipped his face and he gropedhis way into a damp thicket and subsided panting upon the ground. He hadgone some twenty yards. Back on the landing they were lighting the bigsquare lantern that hung on the front of the boat-house and the radiancefrom it allowed Roy to watch what was going on. As nearly as he couldjudge there had been fully a dozen boys in the party and now they weresecuring their own boats and the Ferry Hill crafts along the edge of thefloat.
"I think we ought to put them in the boat-house or somewhere," he heardone of the crowd say. "Supposing they find out that we've swiped themand come over here before we're up."
"Oh get out!" someone answered. "They won't know anything about it untilhalf-past six or seven. We'll be down here by that time."
"Where does this lantern belong?" asked a voice.
"Any old place. Leave it here."
"Let's take it along to find the path with."
"Yes, and have Crowley or Murdock see it and get on to the whole thing!I guess not! Blow it out and leave it by the boat-house."
Then came darkness again and the sound of feet drawing near Roy's placeof concealment. On they came, trooping up the path, laughing and talkingsoftly. Roy crawled gingerly back into the bushes. The first of thecrowd passed within arm's reach, or so it sounded. Then came others,stumbling and muttering. Presently,
"Is that you, Jim!" asked one of the passers.
"That's me," answered a clear voice.
"Coming up to the room for that medicine?"
"What medicine?"
"For your cold."
"Say, you want to get to sleep, my boy. I haven't got any cold."
"You said you had, you idiot! It doesn't sound so now, though."
"I said I had a cold? When did I say so?" demanded Jim.
"Why, in the boat, coming back. I said--"
Then they passed out of hearing and Roy smiled all to himself there inthe darkness. Finally the last of the footfalls ceased sounding on thepath and Roy stretched his cramped limbs and eased his position. Itwouldn't
do to return to the landing yet, though; he must allow them atleast an hour to get to bed and asleep. To be sure, the dormitories werenot, he believed, in view of the landing, but it wouldn't do to takechances. So he made himself as comfortable as he could and waited. Hewas shivering now and his teeth chattered every time he opened his mouthto yawn. He wondered what time it might be; perhaps one o'clock, perhapsfour. At any rate, he must wait an hour longer and he mustn't go tosleep while he waited.
That was the hardest part of it, to keep awake. It seemed to him that hehad never been sleepier in his life. The minutes passed while he stroveto keep his eyes open. Time and again he caught himself drowsing andthrew off the temptation just in time. But the minutes went by, as theymust even when a chap is sitting in a thicket in a suit of damp clothes,and minutes make hours. After a while he assured himself that the hourhad passed, yet resolutely held his place for a while longer to be onthe safe side. Finally, shivering and cramped, he crawled out and pickedhis way back to the landing. If only he had matches! he thoughtruefully. And the next moment his bare foot trod on something andstooping he picked up what he wanted! It felt like a good one, but hedecided to find the lantern before he tested it. He didn't have tosearch long for the lantern, for he fell over it almost the next step hetook. Finding a sheltered place, he opened the lantern and tried thematch. It lighted, flickered uncertainly a moment and then burnedsteadily. He held it to the wick, closed the door and raising the lightlooked about him.
There were seven rowboats and Chub's canoe made fast to the end of thefloat. It was a little difficult to tell which were Ferry Hill and whichHammond craft, but Roy didn't let that trouble him. For the next tenminutes he was so busy that he forgot his coldness. Once the moon cameout for a moment or two, but for the most part it was so dark that thelantern's rays seemed very feeble. Finally, however, the last knot wastied and Roy, blowing out the lantern, slid into one of the Ferry Hillboats and slipped oars into oarlocks. Then, slowly, he headed away inthe darkness, and one by one went each of the seven other boats, thecanoe dipping along in the rear. For, thought Roy with a chuckle,"what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."
I'm not going to dwell on the next hour. Fortunately there was no wind,and the slight tide was in his favor. There were one or two lights onthe opposite shore, but as Roy didn't know where they were they didn'thelp much, and it was more by good-luck than good management that hereached it at all.
When the boat did grate on the shore he leaped out with painter in handand made fast to a rock. Then he returned to the boat and waited aspatiently as he could for dawn. But he didn't have to do that, as itproved. He had been nodding here only half an hour perhaps when themoon, which all the night had been trying its best to elude the clouds,positively leaped into view with an effect so startling that Roy almostfell out of the boat. The moon was floating across a little pond ofpurple-gray sky, the banks of which were piles of fluffy white cloudslike snow. But he didn't waste much time in admiring the scene. Swiftlyhe looked about him. He would have yelled with joy if he hadn't been sotired and sleepy, for there, not a dozen yards away along the bank wasthe boat-house.
At first he decided to pull the boats out where they were and return tothe island without them. Then he determined to see the thing through ifit took all the rest of the night. So he pushed off and headedup-stream. By keeping well in toward shore he was soon in the lee of theisland where no breeze could reach him. After that, it was simple work.The moon stayed out long enough to guide him to shore and then retiredagain. A few minutes' work on the beach sufficed to bring all the boatsout of the water. He worked quietly, for he had no wish to explain thenight's happenings then; he wanted only to tumble into bed and go tosleep. Softly he felt his way through the brush--it was too dark to findthe path--crossed the clearing and at length found his tent and creptquietly into bed. The next thing he knew the canvas overhead was amoving pattern of sunlight and shadow and Chub was pulling him out ofbed by one foot.
"Then, slowly, he headed away in the darkness"]